China vows to make garbage incinerators ‘neighborhood friendly’

BEIJING — Chinese authorities have released a guideline on urban garbage disposal through incineration to deal with the rapidly rising pile-up of household waste in the cities.

The guideline, jointly released by four agencies including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Development and Reform Commission, pledged to strengthen regulation on site selection of incineration facilities.

The facilities should be high-standard, safe and environment-friendly, and existing projects that failed to meet the standards should be shut down, according to the guideline.

It required regulators to strictly implement the responsibility-tracking mechanism and emergency response plans and take effective measures to control possible pollution.

It seeks to alleviate public resentment against incinerators by providing the neighborhood with more greens, sports and leisure facilities, as well as discounted water, heat and electricity to nearby residents.

The regulation came as China’s rapidly growing cities have faced a pile-up of household waste, and disposal measures such as landfills and incineration have faced increasing concerns over air and soil pollution.